plate
An engraved surface used to transfer an image to paper.
Industrial printing
200 entries in this trade.
press proof
The last proof for correction before sending to press.
pressfeeder
A person employed to feed material into a printing press.
printer
The operator of a printing press or the owner of a printing business; (metonymic) any printing business.
printer's ream
Twenty-one and a half quires of paper, i.e. 516 sheets.
printer-friendly
adjectiveIndustrial printing
Of a document or layout, suitable for printing, without any extraneous formatting, images, etc.
printing paper
Any type of paper designed for use in printing processes, excluding newsprint.
process color
A printing process which uses four specific colored inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK), and halftone printing plates, to reproduce a range of colors.
proof sheet
A page of proofed text; a sheet used to make corrections, emendations, etc. before being printed for use.
put up
To set (matter) in capital letters; to switch text from lowercase to capital letters.
quadragesimo-octavo
A book size, (2.5"-3.1" x 2.5"-3.3"), corresponding to the paper size.
quoin
A metal wedge which fits into the space between the type and the edge of a chase, and is tightened to fix the metal type in place.
R2R
Abbreviation of roll-to-roll processing.
register
The inner part of the mould in which types are cast.
reglet
A strip of wood or metal of the height of a quadrat, used for regulating the space between pages in a chase, and also for spacing out title pages and other open matter.
reverse intaglio
A design impressed into the back of transparent or translucent items.
reverse out
To print with reversed colours, i.e. black for white and vice versa.
rule
A thin plate of brass or other metal, of the same height as the type, and used for printing lines, as between columns on the same page, or in tabular work.
run in
To alter the position of matter to fill vacant space.
run on
To carry on or continue (e.g. the type for a new sentence) without making a break or commencing a new paragraph.
run upon sorts
To use or require a greater number of some particular letters or symbols than the regular proportion, as, for example, when making an index.
runaround
A section of type that is narrower than that of the column it is part of; typically next to an illustration.
screen
A material woven from fine wires intended to block animals or large particles from passing while allowing gasses, liquids and finer particles to pass.
screen print
A print produced by screen printing.
screen-print
To apply ink or another material onto a surface through a prepared screen, in order to create a picture, design, or pattern.
screen-printed
adjectiveIndustrial printing
That has been designed or produced using a screen printing process.
set off
To deface or soil the next sheet; said of the ink on a freshly printed sheet, when another sheet comes in contact with it before it has had time to dry.
sexagesimo-quarto
A book size, (1.87"-2.5" x 2.5"-3.125"), corresponding to the paper size.
sheepsfoot
A printer's tool with a claw at one end for prizing up forms.
shooting stick
A printer's tool to be struck with a mallet for driving quoins.
short cross
The short crossbar of a printer's chase.
show-through
The undesirable situation where matter printed on one side of a sheet is visible from the other side.
sidestick
A sloped or beveled piece of wood or metal placed against the side of a page that is being typeset, and locked in place by quoins.
slip sheet
A sheet inserted between freshly printed pages to prevent them from sticking together.
small letter
A character that was once stored in the bottom half of a compositor's typecase.
small pica
The size of type between long primer and pica, standardized as 11 point.
small text
A small size of type, in French and Italian printing, usually conflated with brevier but technically treated as 7½ Didot points.
space line
A thin piece of metal used to open the lines of type to a regular distance from each other, and for other purposes; a lead.
space out
To increase the white space between letters, words or lines.
space rule
A fine, thin, short metal rule of the same height as the type, used in printing short lines in tabular matter.
space suppression
The suppression of the normal advancement of paper in a printer after printing a line of text.
spanish
To subject to spanishing, a printing process in which an ink is deposited on the bottoms and sides of depressions formed in a plastic material
spanishing
A printing process in which an ink is deposited on the bottoms and sides of depressions formed in a material, usually plastic
spirit duplicator
An early document copier using alcohol-based solvents.
spirit master
A two-ply sheet used in a spirit duplicator, in which the top sheet could be typed, drawn, or written upon, and the second sheet was coated with a layer of colored wax.
spot color
In offset printing, any color generated by an ink, pure or mixed, that is printed using a single run.
steel
Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
stereotype
A metal printing plate cast from a matrix moulded from a raised printing surface.
stereotypy
The process of making stereotype plates and printing from them.
stone editor
An editor who works with the compositor at the imposing stone to determine how material will be laid out on the page.
stone subeditor
A subeditor having a similar role to that of the stone editor.
tape
A strong flexible band rotating on pulleys for directing the sheets in a printing machine.
text
A style of writing in large characters; also, a kind of type used in printing.
thirty-twomo
A book size, corresponding to the paper size.
tint block
A surface prepared for printing a background.
token
Ten and a half quires, or, commonly, 250 sheets, of paper printed on both sides; also, in some cases, the same number of sheets printed on one side, or half the number printed on both sides.
trigesimo-secundo
A book size, (3.75", 5" × 2.5", 3.125"), corresponding to the paper size.
turtle-press
A type of printing press in which a turtle (a curved plate) was used.
twenty-fours
A form of composed type or plates containing 24 leaves or 48 pages, properly arranged for printing and folding.
two-line brevier
A size of type between English and great primer, standardized as 16-point.